Conventionally, an air conditioner installed in a building such as a condominium or an ordinary house includes: an outdoor unit installed outside of the building; and an indoor unit installed on a ceiling or a wall surface inside of the building. It is known that the outdoor unit is connected to the indoor unit by refrigerant piping. The inside of the outdoor unit is divided by a partition plate attached to a bottom plate constituting part of a casing of the outdoor unit, into a blower chamber in which a heat exchanger, a blower fan, and the like are installed and a machinery chamber in which a compressor, an accumulator, and the like are provided. An electrical component box is placed above the machinery chamber, and the electrical component box includes: a power supply apparatus that supplies driving electric power to apparatuses such as the compressor and the blower fan provided in the outdoor unit; and a control board that controls the operation of the outdoor unit.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2010-7970 describes a partition plate that is divided into a lower partition plate and an upper partition plate constituting part of a casing of an electrical component box. The casing of the electrical component box is formed of: the upper partition plate; a front plate that is made of a steel plate formed into a substantially U-shape as viewed from the top; and a member that is made of a steel plate formed into a substantially L-shape as viewed from the top and covers the back side and one side of the electrical component box, the one side being opposed to the upper partition plate. Then, the upper partition plate and the front plate have, attached thereto: various boards on which a heater element is mounted, such as a control board and an inverter board; and heat generating components such as a power module, a reactor, and a terminal mount.
In the electrical component box described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2010-7970, the shape of the upper partition plate is similar to the shape of the lower partition plate, and a fixing part that is substantially U-shaped in cross-section is provided at the lower end part of the upper partition plate such that the leading end part of the lower partition plate can be inserted thereinto. At the time of setting the electrical component box to the machinery chamber of the outdoor unit, the leading end part of the lower partition plate is inserted into the fixing part of the upper partition plate, whereby the electrical component box is put on the lower partition plate. In this state, the upper partition plate and the lower partition plate are joined to each other by screwing or welding, whereby the electrical component box is fixed to the machinery chamber.
According to the above-mentioned method of setting the electrical component box, the electrical component box needs to be supported in an extremely small area (only the thickness of the lower partition plate and a portion thereof to be inserted into the fixing part of the upper partition plate) of the leading end part of the lower partition plate. Because the electrical component box is generally heavy (approximately 10 kg), if the electrical component box is supported in such a small area of the lower partition plate, the electrical component box may be unstable while being put on the lower partition plate. Hence, it is necessary to keep holding the electrical component box until the two partition plates are joined to each other by screwing or welding, resulting in decrease in workability.
The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned problem, and therefore has an object to provide an outdoor unit of an air conditioner capable of facilitating setting work of an electrical component box into the outdoor unit.